A Hybrid Spectrum Combinational Auction Mechanism Based on a Weighted Bipartite Graph for Energy Internet in Smart Cities

Abstract

Energy Internet (EI) is aimed at sustainable computing by integrating various energy forms into a highly flexible grid similar to the Internet. The network subsystems of EI connect different components to enable real-time monitoring, controlling, and management. In this paper, the spectrum allocation problem of the cognitive radio network for EI in a smart city is investigated. The network spectrum allocation with both heterogeneous primary operators and secondary users is formulated as the combinatorial auction problem and then is converted to a subset selection problem on a weighted bipartite graph. We propose a hybrid algorithm to solve the problem. Firstly, the proposed algorithm uses a constructive procedure based on the Kuhn-Munkres algorithm to obtain an initial solution. Then, a local search is used to improve the solution quality. In addition, the truthfulness of the auction is guaranteed by adopting a “Vickrey-like” mechanism. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed algorithm is better than existing greedy algorithms in terms of the social welfare, seller revenue, buyer satisfaction ratio, and winning buyer ratio.